Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got a letter from the Daytona Beach Hilton Inn in today's mail stating that...

"The hotel prohibits any guest from entering the hotel with animals of any kind."

It goes on to ask you to store you animals at the Ocean Center or keep them in a climate controlled trailer at the hotel loading dock.

It goes on to state...

"Please do not plan on storing your reptiles in your hotel guest room as the hotel will strictly enforce this policy this year. We appreciate your compliance"

I am curious if anyone else has received this correspondence from the Hilton and what they plan to do about it. I have attended the NRBE for the past 4 years and the hotel has turned a blind eye to the animals purchased by hotel guests. I am not sure that I am comfortable leaving an expensive animal in the hands of a security guard in a climate controlled trailer....whatever that may be?!?

Any thoughts or ideas?

Denny

like anyone would keep their inventory in a climate controlled trailer...goes to show the don't understand "reptiles"....kind of like Snakes on a Plane....lol
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Chris & Alliey
www.bloodyleopard.com
E-mail Us

That gives me an idea.... We will get Samuel Jackson to help all of us in a covert operation to sneak our snakes in nad out fo the hotel. lol

Ah well I say 'we' but I'm not going. But I wish all of you good luck in finding a solution.

I feel EVERYONE needs to contact Wayne Hill and get him working on this matter asap. Here is his email.

whill1@gate.net

Brent
BRB Reptiles

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We had a huge problem with this last year and the Hilton would not allow us to keep our animals in the hotel and we were vendors!!! Eventually we were able to sneak them in with the help of an understanding employee. While there were other vendors being escorted to their rooms with no problem with their animals... go figure. I would recommend EVERYONE contacting Wayne Hill and complaining about this. How can you host a reptile show and not allow reptiles into your hotel, thats crazy. When it was the Adams Mark there was never a problem. Hilton Sucks. I am sure this will be a huge problem espically if you arrive at the show early or leave a couple days after the show. Wayne Hill needs to step up and take care of this problem in my opinion.

I think the Hotel should be contacted as well. It is the equivalent of them not allowing motorcycles to be parked in the parking garage during bike week.(Well, we have this nice lot a mile or so from the hotel for your bikes) Yea right! Are they prepared for the liability of housing millions of dollars worth of reptiles in a trailer?
The # on the letter for Questions or Concerns is for a Liz McMunn 386-947-8033

Kathy & Denny Rimes

**Remember to be nice, until it is time to not be nice.**

I agree everyone should call and voice their concerns to the hoetl itself, but as the organizer for the event Wayne Hill should have taken care of this problem long ago.

n/p

window shopping there but I can see this being a huge mess. If I could offer one piece of advice. I would contact Wayne Hill and not have everyone contact the hotel. If you have someone contact the hotel that doesn't have the best of social skills it may reflect bad on the rest of you guys and the hotel may make a rash, illogical decision. I seriously hope this gets fixed for you everyone staying there with animals.

.. complaining to the Hotel will only warn them of people not wanting to comply and stiffen their resolve. Remember they don't have to grab you on the way in, they could wait until you're out, go find your live herps and check you out. They'll hand you your bill and your stuff from the lock-up when you come ask why your key doesn't work!
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'people without the best social skills' That's funny!
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My guess is they won't be searching people checking in but they probably will attempt to stop people openly carrying animals.. it's going to be a circus (or a riot) Friday evening, depending upon how that goes. The perverse fact is that it's the people with the chameleons and pet beardies and pac-man frogs (the harmless non-scary stuff) who are in for trouble. Guys with a 9' Macklot's (or 30 spider balls) can put that under their shirt or in their overnight bag and walk right in.
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My plan is to see what happens and ride it out.. If this does become a fiasco then I will probably not do the show again without some changes.
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Gus
A. Rentfro
RioBravoReptiles.com
www.riobravoreptiles.com

"Quality is not an accident. Perfectly healthy animals are a minimum requirement.. everything else is just salesmanship" gus

Didn't they offer a discounted rate to those who were coming to Daytona for the show? Wasn't it like $99 a night or similar? Wouldn't that be hypocritical to begin with? Saying, " hey, we will offer you a discount for a room" but then say, " nope..can't bring them!! LOL!....the heck is that?"
This is how tons of people are going to handle doing things that weekend, by bringing some or all back to the room.

And also....that trailer idea reeks in my opinion. Great way to spread something if there are any animals that are sick, mites, etc....yeah..let's buy animals we have been waiting to buy, only to put them in a trailer with animals we know NOTHING about. Makes a lot of sense?

I wonder if this decision was from a new management company? I have seen flyers in the past stating that they were ok with animals in the room as long as people did what they could to not bring attention to them. This was when we stayed there three times before.

This really sucks for a lot of people if this will really happen.
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Genesis 1:1

I contacted the number for Liz McMunn as it stated on the ridiculous letter I received from the Hilton.

Liz will not be in until TUESDAY...great customer service! Supposedly the Manager will be calling me shortly.....Are they going to sign something stating that they would be liable for my 100,000 in reptiles...I doubt it.

I would have made other arrangements, their responsibility was to let me know of this EARLIER not less than a week before I leave!

I wonder if the Hilton even realizes the business they could face losing?????

...This is really stupid. When the show used to be at the Twin Towers in Orlando they got new management and the new management decided they did not want a reptile show in their hotel. Wayne made the move to Daytona. It was not very long afterwards that the bean counters at the Twin Towers told the new managers what a big money draw the Expo had been and they asked Wayne to come back. Now the people in the Daytona Hilton are being just as stupid. We should all boycott them if they do not change this policy. There is a shortage of rooms along the beach but there are plenty of places to stay across the river in Daytona.
...There is a partial solution. Most vendors will hold snakes at their tables until buyers are ready to go. This does nothing for those vendors who arrive a day or two early for time at the beach or for those vendors and buyers who stay a day or two after the show.
Jeff

>>I got a letter from the Daytona Beach Hilton Inn in today's mail stating that...
>>
>>"The hotel prohibits any guest from entering the hotel with animals of any kind."
>>
>>It goes on to ask you to store you animals at the Ocean Center or keep them in a climate controlled trailer at the hotel loading dock.
>>
>>It goes on to state...
>>
>>"Please do not plan on storing your reptiles in your hotel guest room as the hotel will strictly enforce this policy this year. We appreciate your compliance"
>>
>>I am curious if anyone else has received this correspondence from the Hilton and what they plan to do about it. I have attended the NRBE for the past 4 years and the hotel has turned a blind eye to the animals purchased by hotel guests. I am not sure that I am comfortable leaving an expensive animal in the hands of a security guard in a climate controlled trailer....whatever that may be?!?
>>
>>Any thoughts or ideas?
>>
>>Denny

I'm sure Wayne received the same letter as he's probably staying at the Hilton too. I don't think this is necessarily his fight, but he could certainly lean on the people who own or run the ocean center and have them do the dirty work
Personally, I think the Hilton will cave as soon as someone with a LARGE collection gets there and says, hey, I have about half a million dollars worth of reptiles here, where can I store them? Also, will you sign my release letter saying that if any of my animals gets sick, stolen, etc... that you will pay for every bit of lost revenue as well as every future customers repeat business I could earn or lose as a result of your negligence?
See you all at the show!
jb
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Jonathan Brady
"Sarcasm is angers ugly cousin" -Dr. Buddy Rydell (Jack Nicholson) in "Anger Management".

before the letter went out and that he was in agreement with this effort to keep reptiles out of the hotel. I feel if this is true its to keep sales out of the hotel and in the expo. That would be the only valid reason to keep them out of the hotel. However, if I cant keep my animals in my room, I will most likely Cancel my hotel reservation with the hilton and make do where i can elsewhere.

Hopefully they come to their senses about this issue.

I don't really know anything about Wayne, but maybe he's worried about negative press? For example, an animal escapes and scares someone...?
Just a thought... jb
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Jonathan Brady
"Sarcasm is angers ugly cousin" -Dr. Buddy Rydell (Jack Nicholson) in "Anger Management".

It most certainly is wayne's fight. It is wayne's show, and he needs to make sure his vendors as well as his customers have a good experience. It would not hurt to get the Ocean Center involved, but waye has to bear the burdon on this one-no question about it. I am just glad I am close enough to commute
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Brian Emanuel
NYOKA REPTILES
nyokareptiles@yahoo.com

Well, what's so special about Daytona? I say EVERYBODY, before checking out, pisses all over EVERYTHING in their rooms & we'll look for a friendlier location for the future.

The letter was carefully witheld and mailed at the last minute in order to limit people's options should they take real offense at it. I know vendors who have yet to receive it and I got mine today..
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With the 5-day cancellation policy if you call them now the Hilton can surely keep your money for Thursday if you were a dope like me and planned to come early and relax and Friday night too. That's a win for them. And we know that we can't get our money back from the show. It's a cinch that any vendor who pulls out harms only himself.. there won't be a sign outside the Auditorium "FYI.. a lot of the people and animals you came to see are not in there".. So the gate will be mostly unchanged.
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You can be certain that Wayne Hill knew all about it. How much of a fight he put up over it is anybody's guess. What are his reasons for not personally getting involved and advising the vendors? Ask him when you see him.
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If there was a storm in the Antilles moving north the Hilton would be empty this weekend except for the loyal herpers. That letter would never have been mailed.
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See you there (I suppose).
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Gus
A. Rentfro
RioBravoReptiles.com
www.riobravoreptiles.com

"Quality is not an accident. Perfectly healthy animals are a minimum requirement.. everything else is just salesmanship" gus